Living With Diabetes: The Benefits Of A High Fat And Low Carbohydrate Diet

3383 words - 14 pages

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), diabetes is a disease that affects over 8% of the United States population and has become a financial burden to the health-care industry, costing $245 billion in 2012 alone (2013a). Many newly diagnosed type II diabetics turn to the ADA or other established medical authorities for help with this devastating disease. However, most recommend a low-fat high-carbohydrate diet. Following this advice will only cause progressive worsening of the disease and symptoms, leading to higher medical costs and possible premature death. In order for a diabetic to lead a long, healthy and relatively complication-free life, it is vital that they ignore the conventional medical advice.
The typical medical establishment’s dietary guidelines for type II diabetics should not be followed because they are based upon outdated and faulty medical research and medically unsound. Furthermore, the profit-motivated pharmaceutical industry has too much influence over the guidelines and physician training. Diabetics can effectively combat their disease by ignoring the mainstream advice and following a high-fat low-carbohydrate diet.
Background
How diabetes works
The first key to understanding diabetes is to understand how the human body handles excess sugar in the bloodstream. As Dr. Richard Bernstein—a leading diabetic doctor—explains this process in his book Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars (2007, pp 33-51). The human body uses glucose (a simple sugar) for energy, which is produced by eating food. The body needs a constant supply of glucose and tries to maintain an even blood-glucose level at all times so that humans can function properly throughout the day and in-between meals. When there is excess glucose in the blood, the hormone insulin is responsible for transporting it into muscle, fat and liver cells for storage and later use. This mechanism of storage malfunctions in diabetics. In the case of a type I diabetic, their pancreas simply does not produce any insulin. For a type II diabetic, they might produce less insulin than normal and their cells become resistant to insulin. This means that while there may be high levels of insulin attempting to transport glucose out of the bloodstream and into cells, the cells themselves are not listening. This elevated blood sugar begins damaging all organs in the body, which is what leads to diabetic complications such as nerve damage and blindness. Therefore, to treat diabetes, one must be able to lower blood sugar levels and maintain as close to a proper blood-glucose level as possible.
The mainstream recommended diabetic diet
The diet that is typically recommended by mainstream doctors is one composed of a large percentage of carbohydrates. The ADA site calls this approach “Create Your Plate” (2013b). It is similar to the “My Plate” dietary recommendations by the US government, meant for every American to follow. In...

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